In 2013, Siddharth Ravindran faced a medical emergency in the family. Had it not been for his savings and medical insurance, chances of wading through the situation would have been pretty slim.

Somehow, he managed. “The situation I faced was slightly better than that of scores who need last minute loans, but due to the lengthy process, often have to suffer. I narrowly escaped such a predicament,” says Ravindran.

The experience of facing a short-term cash crunch impacted him deeply. It also helped sow the seeds for a business venture that could help people navigate such situations. Two years later, in August 2015, Ravindran launched Rupeelend, a digital finance company providing short-term credit to customers. “Banks normally take 7-10 days to give loans to new customers. We started Rupeelend to substantially reduce the time taken for loan disbursement,” says Ravindran, Founder and CEO.

The startup disburses loans in two hours to new customers and 10 minutes to a returning customer. Set up with an investment of Rs 1.3 crore, sourced from family and friends, Rupeelend employs a cloud-based system for customer acquisition, sales, customer experience management and for improving operational efficiency. “Our customer acquisition is 100 % online and so are all verifications. We have artificial intelligence-driven decision making systems,” says Ravindran. The startup, which has tied up with four NBFCs, has disbursed more than Rs 3 crore in short-term loans in the past 12 months. Besides using traditional metrics to gauge the loan seeker’s credit worthiness, it also employs algorithms that assess an applicant’s social metrics— credit-worthiness of friends on social media platform, for instance—to further ascertain repayment capacity and risk.

When Rupeelend was founded, there were lots of naysayers, says Ravindran. People were sceptical about the cost model. “Lenders, in their bid to attract customers, often come up with unsustainable offers. We followed an oldschool methodology and it has helped us sail through the rough times,” says Ravindran. The startup offers loans ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh, for a maximum period of 30 days. It charges 1% interest per day from new customers and as less as 0.1% for repeat customers, depending on loan size and duration. Rupeelend’s focus on quick disbursal of loans, as opposed to unsustainable low-interest offers, has received an enthusiastic response, says Ravindran.

Operating in the NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru, the startup is now looking to expand its offerings to Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Kolkata. Rupeelend, with a staff strength of 50, generated Rs 62 lakh in annual revenue and is now looking at developing financial management solutions for the SME sector. “We aim to provide a mix of lead management, customer relationship and inventory management services. With our predictive analysis models, we can help them in financial planning and decision making,” says Ravindran. The startup is looking to tap people with bigger loan requirements—Rs 50,000-Rs 10 lakh with a tenure ranging from two months to two years. “Many of our existing customers have been asking to increase the loan ticket size, and we are working to make it possible,” says Ravindran.

The company is also building a loyalty program to reward its regular customers with discounts on rates and longer tenures. “People are sceptical when they see our offerings. It’s understandable. They have had their fingers burnt with many other lenders guaranteeing a quick loan but delaying disbursement,” says Ravindran. Creating awareness among loan seekers that the company can offer loans in a matter of hours, even minutes, is a challenge that is increasingly being met by word-of-mouth. “We are changing people’s mindset as our trust pool of customers grows,” says Ravindran.